In anticpation of the official site I would propose for abolition the Office of Public Protection and the associated Court. Almost no one knows about this as the legislation was tacked on the end of the Justice Act and received absolutely no parliamentary time. Briefly, if I wish to give someone, in anticipaction of my mental incapacity, powers of over my estate then that is exactly what I wish. The state has no right or duty to overide my wishes. If I want my Wife to administer my property as she feels fit the state has no mandate to intervene. This is a pernicious intrusion where the state has no right or duty.

I want you to repeal the law that makes it necesary to have a licence to canoe or kayak on British rivers and lakes. after all I can cycle anywhere in the country without a licence. canoeing does not harm the environment and I think all rivers and lakes should be public rights of way.

This may not be a top priority of the new governments which I can understand but I would like to see a repeal of the law which stops supporters at football matches from being able to have a safe standing area. The Football Supporters Federation has shown evidence that it works in the German domestic leagues and that clubs do not even keep records of injuries in the safe standing areas because it has never been a issue.

As you can see, I have taken the liberty of taking from the Football Supporters Federations official site a quote from Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster:

“But we cannot ignore the large numbers of fans who want to stand, and are doing so in seating areas, despite the existing regulations and the danger it causes.

“Given the seeming impossibility of policing existing regulation and recognising that some passionate fans want to be able to jump up and down when watching their teams each week then we need to look at technologies that allow them to do that safely.

Town & Country Planning Act.
I believe this should be repealed or its powers be curtailed significantly.
I have reciently fallen foul of this legislation because a neighbour of mine who although fully resonsible for the upkeep of the boundary betwen our two properties decided that he no longer wanted this resposibility. He contacted the Council and got them to issue an enforcement notice on me. I was not ‘allowed’ to be told who had made the comlaint only some standardised explination that the Council had been monitering and were worried about the sitution for some time, which was untrue.
It was actually fairly obvious to me that a particular neigbour of mine was responsible for this. The reason he had done it was because he wanted to buy my land from me and I didnt want to sell it to him, and this was a way of putting pressure on me to do so.
When I pointed out to the enforcment officers what was going on they dropped the enforcment notice. However I was put through all that anguish, and if I hadent obtained some legal advise the Council would have just prosecuted me. I have no gurantee that this person will not put in the same complaint again in a few months time as the Council has to investigate ‘all complaints’, and could just issue another enforcement notice on me. It is obvious that this law should not be able to be abused in this way, and the Council should not be alowed to intervean in neigbour disputes, that is for the courts or other authorities.
It is much to draconian in its powers and infringes on civil liberties.
I hope someone reviews the Town & Country Planning Act.

Please repeal the no smoking in pubs law. Fine, where food is being served then I agree with no smoking. Let the individual pubs decide for themselves and the public will vote with their feet. This ban is only exacerbating the dire situation pubs now find themselves in.

Please repeal the Human Rights Act, This has only been of use to criminals and so called asylum seekers. It is not possible to secure our society whilst all those that would do us harm can hide behind this legislation. It makes us the laughing stock of the World

I would be happy if you decided to forgo your ‘Human Rights’ but please dont campaign to remove mine.

Have you actually read the act you want to repeal ?

which of these rights are you willing to give up

Your human rights are:

•the right to life
•freedom from torture and degrading treatment
•freedom from slavery and forced labour
•the right to liberty
•the right to a fair trial
•the right not to be punished for something that wasn’t a crime when you did it
•the right to respect for private and family life
•freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and freedom to express your beliefs
•freedom of expression
•freedom of assembly and association
•the right to marry and to start a family
•the right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights and freedoms
•the right to peaceful enjoyment of your property
•the right to an education
•the right to participate in free elections
•the right not to be subjected to the death penalty

Paul Mckeown This is not a forum for your insults. Tolerance is an English tradition which you would do well to adopt. This forum is nothing if people like you can show disdain for opinoins which are at variance with your dogma.

It was an uneducated statement by you that is not really worthy of a response. You merely highlight that you have no real knowledge of The HRA or the Magna Carta. I could stereotypically accuse you of being s Daily Mail or Sun reader, but I won’t..

Repeal the ban on smoking in public buildings etc. I can only have a comfortable coffee and cigarette when I go to Morocco now,here in this country I am forced to avoid coffee bars and other oasis as I refuse to pay the same price as those who do not smoke and who enjoy the indoor facilities. Government goes too far into the regulation , interference and meddling of peoples lives and it must stop.

@Barry George
While @Paul Nickels clearly made a mistake referring to the Magna Carta, it’s unfair to ridicule his point. There is a genuine debate to be had here.

I remember when this was first proposed at a Lib Dem conference (makes me feel old). At the time, some speakers were worried about unintended consequences, effectively, that new laws would be created by judges and courts rather than by democratically accountable politicians.

Those speakers gave USA gun laws as an example.

It’s far too early to know whether their fears will be justified.

Personally, I think there’s arguments either way. But I think now we’ve got the Human Rights Act, it’d just be too disruptive to get rid of it.

I was merely ridiculing his asylum analogy… If stone throwing is involved then the two Paul’s were equally culpable … I wonder why you selected me and not the insulting Nurse!! remark by Paul Nickels or the play pen </i? comment by Paul McKeown ?

There is a genuine debate to be had here.

Really ?

Our manifesto made our position clear…

‘Ensure that everyone has the same protections under the law by protecting the Human Rights Act’

Are we going to back flip on that too !

I am happy to debate seriously about the HRA with anyone who knows the first thing about it. But please don’t judge me on my response to an inane comment.

Maybe there is a debate to be had, but it certainly hasn’t taken place in this thread. If it does then I will be happy to respond accordingly

It never ceases to amaze me that I , a mere Liberal Democrat voter, seem to spend more effort defending Liberal Values and Principles, than the members !

We are talking about the Human Rights Act. But members appear so unsure where they stand when trying to weigh up Liberal policy with Coalition ideology, that on something as fundamental to our principles as Human Rights, I stand almost alone (thanks Paul McKeown) in defence of party policy.

How far will we go in defence of the coalition ? What is the ‘genuine debate’ here ?
All I have seen in the media, is people using ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ logic to defend a serious attack on our liberties. My liberties…

Human rights apply to all of us. That means that nasty people may well get their rights protected, but what else are we to do… Torture them ?

Liberals are the only thing standing between the removal of our liberties and freedoms, and they are all busy looking sheepish and attacking the Labour Party, whom for the record are not in power and can’t change or do anything about anything… Pointless..

I am really looking forward to seeing some members start standing up proud for Liberal Principles instead of lame Ad Hominem attacks on Labour or defence of coalition policy…

Barry George “I wonder why you selected me and not the insulting Nurse!! remark by Paul Nickels or the play pen </i? comment by Paul McKeown ?"

Sorry. Didn't mean to come over that way. My apologies.

As for my ambivalence on the Human Rights Act. I'm an ordinary member whose always had that ambivalence. Thankfully the party is pretty tolerant of dissenters. But, as I said, I wouldn't want to repeal it. I won't be reopening the debate.

I know this tolerance has been under strain in the last couple of months as we debate the coalition, but it'll return.

I've become concious that I've been too defensive defending the coalition. I'm now trying to be less reserved about what I really think, to start to talk about what I'd like the coalition to change. And as you've found, to be open about where I'm not convinced about Lib Dem policy.

The Human rights act has allowed people like Omar Bakri to evade trial in the USA and others to avoid extradition to Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Where are my children’s rights not to be threatened by the freedom of ideologists who wish to do us harm in Britain but who cannot be detained or deported. I was always a Lib Dem voter coming from a strong Liberal supporting family who were active party members but not any more

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic
and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here.
Please respect it and all readers of the site.

If you are a member of the party, you can have the Lib Dem Logo appear next to your comments to
show this. You must be registered for our forum and can
then login on this public site
with the same username and password.